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Sam (Sniderman) The Record Man Dies

This is somewhat off-topic but I grew up in the York Mills and Bayview area and it was rumored/accepted that Sam Sniderman lived in this fantastic old Italianate house at the south corner of Highland Cresent, Bayview Ridge and Birchwood. I've never been able to find a picture of it before it was torn down but it was definitely one of the most interesting buildings in the neighborhood. Any one know of any pics of this place in existence?
 
someMidTowner said:
Nope, but i have heard David Pecaut Square referred to as "Pecaut Square".
Click to expand...

Though of course, it's Nathan Phillips Square--if you called it "Phillips Square", people would look at you kinda weird.

Well, I can just as well see a full-on "Sam Sniderman Square" becoming "Sam's Square" in the vernacular...
 
What a prosaic toponymy we are creating in Toronto by choosing awkward, and eventually obscure, place names for our public spaces. David Pecaut Square? Nathan Phillips Square? Sam Sniderman Square... really?! None of these names trip off the tongue exactly, and what will they mean to future generations?... heck, I'm doubtful they mean very much now.

It is important to memorialize worthy individuals, to be sure, but unless we're talking Abraham Lincoln or Winston Churchill (so to speak) there are more appropriate ways to do this.
 
Tewder said:
It is important to memorialize worthy individuals, to be sure, but unless we're talking Abraham Lincoln or Winston Churchill (so to speak) there are more appropriate ways to do this.
Click to expand...

Given that Nathan Phillips Square has successfully been "Nathan Phillips Square" for half a century now without objection, and the label fits like an old shoe now, I think your concern about "awkward, and eventually obscure" is misplaced in that case...
 
adma said:
Given that Nathan Phillips Square has successfully been "Nathan Phillips Square" for half a century now without objection, and the label fits like an old shoe now, I think your concern about "awkward, and eventually obscure" is misplaced in that case...
Click to expand...

... though I wonder how many refer to the whole joint as 'City Hall' rather than 'Nathan Phillips Square'?
 
Tewder said:
... though I wonder how many refer to the whole joint as 'City Hall' rather than 'Nathan Phillips Square'?
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No one, because City Hall refers to the towers, Council chambers, etc - that whole structure, whereas Nathan Phillips Square is the outdoor part in front. It even has its own Wikipedia entry.
 
'No one'? On the contrary, many would say they're going skating at 'City Hall' for example, meaning the square not the building.
 
themarc said:
This is somewhat off-topic but I grew up in the York Mills and Bayview area and it was rumored/accepted that Sam Sniderman lived in this fantastic old Italianate house at the south corner of Highland Cresent, Bayview Ridge and Birchwood. I've never been able to find a picture of it before it was torn down but it was definitely one of the most interesting buildings in the neighborhood. Any one know of any pics of this place in existence?
Click to expand...

Sam Sniderman was a friend of my grandfather. I recall that he lived on Braemore Gardens...at least he was living there in the 1980s, but I guess he could have moved up that way later.

Braemore as well as Burnside Drive (as well as Regal Heights and some streets around Hillcrest Park) became heavily populated by upwardly mobile Jews during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Sort of a pre-suburban transition zone between the old Spadina area and settlement in Forest Hill and later, North York.

(David Lewis for instance lived on Burnside before going up to Hillhurst in the 1960s).
 
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adma said:
Though Rob Ford might--didn't the Mayor's office once plug something as being in "City Hall Square"?

Which is another way of arguing against the tyranny-of-the-idiot-so-called-majority when it comes to municipal nomenclature...
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its a stupid sign though.... Play Da Record has 100x more history inside its doors of 15 years anyway
 
Everyone: I will mention that I remember well those two iconic Yonge Street music emporiums:
SAM THE RECORD MAN and A&A's in their classic light signs and browsing for good Canadian rock
albums not available in the US...

What made those two stores interesting is that they both were local venues and not part of large
chains like the defunct Tower Records...

It would be a tribute to both of them if both of those signs are preserved...
The Sam's sign would be an interesting honor to the memory of Sam Sniderman...

LI MIKE
 
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